I understand the unusual feeling associated with this. Last year in 1st grade DD7 was made to be teacher's TA unbeknownst to me and I did not like it when I did find out. Anyway her BFF was behind for 1st, so teacher sat the two together so "they could help each other", which DD loved. I found out the first week of summer that DD and BFF had incorrectly assumed that BFF was going to be held back. Both girls recognized the disparity between their abilities and incorrectly assumed that DD was "normal" and BFF was severely behind, which obviously wasn't the case.
Imagine both girls huddled together during class trying to develop strategies so BFF wouldn't "flunk" first grade.
Interestingly, DD kept saying she was "doomed" the first two weeks of summer and I finally found out she thought BFF would flunk and it would be her fault because she couldn't teach her to do math the same way she could do it.
It was a mess, but I think we straightened it out. Of course BFF didn't flunk but they aren't in the same class this year, which is probably good, but severly dissapointing to DD.
(hands up in the air) These situations are so obscure and uncommon, you can't predict them and I'm still not sure if I handled it well.
(shrug)
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